BVT robotics team reaches world semifinals

UPTON - Of the 563 teams to participate in the 2017 VEX World Robotics Competition, the Blackstone Valley Tech VEX Robotics team was one of 24 teams to make it to the semifinals of the competition.

"This was my second year heading to the world championship, and I didn't know what to expect," said Joseph Skowronski, 17, captain of the BVT team.

After winning the Southern New England VEX Championship on March 5, the 12 students on the BVT team qualified for the four-day competition in Louisville, Kentucky, which ended on April 22.

The competition hosted teams from all over the globe, and Skowronski.

"It was a huge culture shock, you have teams competing from all over," said Skowronski.

"Coming in as a sophomore, it was cool getting to know other people, and rooting for our team," said Zachary Rivernider, 16, who said this was his first competition.

In order to qualify for the semifinals, the BVT team needed to rank high enough in the high school division to stand out. The teams played on a 12-foot-by-12-foot square field, where two alliances one "red" and one "blue," composed of two teams each competed in matches consisting of a 15-second autonomous period, followed by 1 minute and 45 seconds of driver-controlled play. The object of the game was to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by placing stars and cubes in each team's zones, and by hanging robots on their hanging bar.

The 100 teams that competed in the division were randomly paired to work together, as they competed against other teams to raise their rank. The BVT team ranked 27th out of the 100 teams.

"For the most part the teams spoke English," said Skowronski. "But while we were competing, we had to make spur-of-the-moment decisions, and some of that communication was hard to do."

After receiving their ranks, the top eight teams then selected their allies for the elimination rounds of the competition. The United Kingdom team, which was ranked third, selected BVT and a team from Indiana as their allies in the semifinals.

"Anything can happen, it is very unpredictable," said Rivernider.

Although they didn't make it to the final match, the BVT students are proud of how far they went in the competition.

"I have a lot of school spirit, and I love when my school does great things," said Rivernider. "I felt a lot of pride in our school for making it that far."

If the school qualifies again next year, both Rivernider and Skowronski agree that in order to better prepare for the competition, the robotics team needs to utilize all of the resources available to them.

"I think next year, I need to step it up," said Rivernider. "There were some complex codes I've never done before, and there is so much I didn't know but I wanted to know."

Rivernider hopes to participate in the world competition again next year. Skowronski is a graduating senior said he plans to attend Purdue University, where he plans to study robotic engineering.

Christian Yapor can be reached at 508-634-7521, or at cyapor@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChristianYapor.